In a coking operation considerable noxious gases are generated as the charge of coke is pushed from the chamber through the coke guide into the quenching car. Thus it is standard procedure to provide an aspirating arrangement which normally includes a hood positioned over the quenching car at the coke side of the coking chamber so as to aspirate the steam and other gases generated as the hot coke moves out of the coking chamber, through the coke guide, and into the quenching car. Normally the coke chamber opens at its coke side, as opposed to its opposite pusher side, above a so-called bench level which is substantially above ground level. Tracks provided at this bench level support the coke guide which normally also forms part of the door-removing machine. The quenching car is normally supported on rails of a track at ground level next to and below the tracks for the coke guide.
Sometimes the hood is mounted on a carriage which moves along with the quenching car and/or coke guide. Means for treating the collected gases may also be movable along the coke-oven battery in this manner in some installations.
In a known system (see German Pat. No. 2,713,466 and German printed application No. 2,418,323) a complex structure is built which supports tracks for the hood well above the ground, and indeed above the center of gravity of the gas-collecting apparatus. This structure also supports a stationary conduit to which the gas-collecting apparatus is connected. The entire arrangement is therefore not only very bulky, but relatively expensive to manufacture as the structure needed to support all this equipment above the ground is quite complex and must be of heavy-duty construction.
It is also possible to support the gas-collecting apparatus to either side of the quenching wagon (see German utility model 7,732,774). In this system also substantial structure supports the rails for the gas-collecting apparatus at the level of the roof of the coking battery, while the gas-collecting apparatus is in turn displaceable on a frame riding on these rails but extending transverse to these rails. Such an arrangement normally is connected to an elevated stationary collecting conduit. In this arrangement moving the quenching car underneath this apparatus becomes relatively difficult and limits the size of the quenching car. It is also known (see German published patent application No. 2,543,834) to support the hood partly at least on the tracks for the quenching car. This makes it necessary to move the quenching car and gas-collecting apparatus dependently on each other. Other arrangements (see German published patent application No. 2,545,286) again entail complex structures which also carry the stationary conduit of the collecting conduit.
All of these devices are relatively complex and frequently make it difficult to service the other machinery of the coking plant. At the very least they normally deny any access to the quenching car and guide when the gas-treatment apparatus is in place, and indeed normally prevent motion of these devices independently of the gas-collecting apparatus.